Wednesday, April 19, 2017

the Kangs have to go to their motherland to have to worry about ducking in a doorway

Somehow I ended up with extra time today (maybe it has something to do with the fact that I haven't started dinner yet?) and noticed that I haven't blogged one darn bit since coming home from Korea. Moderately lame, but life seems a little less exciting over here in the states. Our days are filled with the same things week after week. Soccer, dance, piano, homeschool group, swimming lessons, church responsibilities and all of those fun household responsibilities that seem to always need doing.

Maybe this is why I spend most of my free time dreaming away about returning to Korea this fall. It is ironic since Koreans are infamous for their "Bbali, Bbali" (hurry up!) ways, but Korea represents a much slower paced life for me. Most of the things we did were centered around family. I got to lay on the floor with the girls at night and talk with them about anything and everything. (Or we snuck out after the littles fell asleep for late night street food runs) We went to school together, we adventured together and we learned together. All of these little things are what pulls me back. Lilly frequently talks about how she wishes that we could just move to Korea. You and me both, girl. (Just you and me, actually. Everyone else would be less than thrilled about it. Including and especially Chris.) But we will settle for a trip here and there. Hopefully there will be another one this fall and hopefully, it will be a little longer than our last trip.

Does our family do anything besides Korean-y things? You betcha. What have we been up to since October? Here are a few highlights:

•Rachel surprised us for a Thanksgiving visit, thanks to her friend getting married
•We got more Rachel time at Christmas
•We had a simple Christmas that had more of a Christ centered focus. We loved the Light the World challenge that helped us work on developing Christ like characteristics throughout December.
•Our family did Whole30 for two months. We now are doing a little mix of paleo and real life, trying to keep it healthy but still loving our rice and tofu.
•We took the whole crew (minus Autumn and Chris) to Rootstech in Utah. Lilly and Elise staying with Rachel, experiencing BYU and all of the silliness her roommates and her had to offer.
•Chloe got her permit and mastered driving a stick. Either she is a great student or I've become an amazing driving instructor. (Actually, I'm going for #1 as I am still pretty squimish in the passenger seat.)
•The girls participated in Destination Imagination through our homeschool group. They loved it. I barely survived with my sanity intact.
•We took a family vacation down to Arches and Canyonlands over spring break since it was Lilly's turn to watch conference in the conference center. (It also gave us an excuse to hang out with Rachel!)
•We took a quick trip to Eastern Washington for my grandmother's 85th birthday party. We did a gentle surprise party so it wouldn't end up with a heart attack.

Whew. And that is my 6 months in review. It doesn't sound as busy as it felt. And now I am going to go research plane tickets a little more. Something I'm pretty excited about for our next trip? We're going to attempt to vlog as a family. Ooh. And Rachel might come for a couple of weeks. Exciting times.

Being blessed with 6 girls brings lots of joy and lots of chaos into our house. We get to do girly to the sixth degree and I enjoy every moment of it. Almost. My poor husband is outnumbered in a major way, but he did ask for it when he said that he wanted all girls, a mere 14 years ago.